To
Mazheik, July 2005
by
Shalom Eilati (Kaplan)
During my visit to
Lithuania in July 2005 I went to see the region where my ancestors
had lived and
some of them perished – in the towns Siad (Seda) and Mazheik (Mazheikiai).
Thanks
to earlier contacts, the hospitable and most cooperative director of the
museum
of
Mazheik, Algimantas Muturas, hosted me and treated me very warmly and helpfully. I
learned that he pays much attention to the Jewish legacy of the town. He keeps
separate files with partial records of Jewish families in the various shtetlach
of the region ("apskritis" in Lithuanian). Partially, he retrieved
data from the various Jewishgen sources. At the moment, he is also compiling a
list of Jewish families of Mazheik, based on various local sources. In
1955 a
fire demolished the whole archive (!!)…Therefore his records (as well as
maps) are very poor. Nor is there much or any info about lots of land, houses
etc. Some additional information could be found in the archive of
Kaunas
or the State Archive in
Vilnius
.
Muturas
kindly guided me along the main street of M. – Laisves gatve – and
mentioned the names of various Jewish owners, tennants and Jewish institutions
(like the Folksbank, the mikveh, school, etc.) . I think that it could be a
big mitzvah and important mission – to create a map that includes as many
Jewish landmarks as possible (see various "Yizkor" books of
shtetlech, as Jonava, that includes a reconstructed map ).
I also saw the house of my uncle Zorach Peckl on Vitauto 3, thanks to its
earlier identification by father Iting. It is one of the last old houses of
the town, and I observed the first signs for its widening.
Muturas led me to the cemetery, that also contains the massgrave. It is located
at the
southern exit from the town, on the road to Siad and Plunge, Eastern side,
before the road crosses the River Venta.
The
original, neglected and ruined Jewish cemetery can be seen between big
trees that grew in the abandoned area, on the left side of the road, while
in the front of the marked massgrave lie several well treated graves –
of Soviet people that were also murdered here ~ their families maintain these
graves
properly.
A
general note:
This is the opportunity to praise the blessed initiative of the British Jewry
(Lord Janner is the head of the project) to mark Jewish massgraves across the
Baltics. Gradually, they have marked a big part of the massgraves of
Lithuania
. The commemorative stone is a standard pole of granite, triangular in shape,
and on its 'face' are inscriptions in Lithuanian and Yiddish; an arrow
points in the direction of the massgrave. A general map of such marked
massgraves can be found on the site www.maps.lt,
as well as much additional info. The more comprehensive list and general
description of 220 (!!) massgraves across
Lithuania
( an indirect testimony to the nation-wide mass participation in murdering
Jews simultaneously in hundreds of shtetlach during the bloody summer of 1941
) can be found in a very important publication:
" The Book of Sorrow",
Vilnius
1995, a
catalogue in 4 languages with photographs, out of print. The big disadvantage
of that book, as well the project of the granite markers, is that it doesn't
guide the visitor in detail to the desired spot. Many of the granite markers
stand near the massgrave, or cemetery itself. You can detect it (some of
them are already damaged…) only when you are near the target. There is a
need for bigger markers where the narrow path into the woods begins at the
main road. In addition, the most needed project that could complete the whole
enterprise should be a special guidebook that contains all the massgraves
across
Lithuania
, with detailed maps of access to each of them. ( I call any potential
benefactor of Litwakish origin to consider the support of such a valuable
"Yizkor" projectd. It may also help to encourage the pilgrimage of
the younger generations. ). I have to note with grief that those blessed
projects have not yet won the public attention which they deserve, nor from
the Lithuanian Jews Association.
